I might have thanked them, but I wasn’t sure I’d made any sound. The adrenaline was wearing off. It left a gaping chasm that was being filled quickly with sheer terror. And with dread.
If this was what Nick did on a regular basis, if this was part of his life, I knew I couldn’t stay in his world.
CHAPTER 19
NICK
Pasco and Lang, along with Lang’s tactical team partner, Kyle Rogers, and his tactical team ops, Ryan Wheeler and Ben Hayes, climbed onto the military cargo plane and loaded up their gear. Cara and I climbed on next and the hatch closed behind us.
“The ride won’t be very comfortable,” Wheeler, a grinning blond guy wearing aviators, told her, “but it’ll be quick.”
I sat beside her on a bench attached to the plane wall and wrapped us both in a thermal blanket. She hadn’t stopped shaking since the snipers had converged on us. Lang was anxious to brief me about the weapon now that we were face-to-face, but I’d refused to do anything until we had Cara safely on the ground in Maryland. I hoped by then the shock would wear off.
“You’re safe now,” I whispered.
When I stroked her hair to soothe her, she laid her head on my shoulder.
Pasco sat down near us.
I frowned at him. “What happened? How did we get breached?”
“An unfortunate...” he shrugged, “freak accident of a sort.”
“The hell does that mean?” I growled. I tightened my grip on Cara.
She was beginning to relax, which was good, but she still wasn’t supporting her own weight and I worried she would slide out of my arms.
“It was geo-location data,” Pasco said. “From Cara’s account.”
“You mentioned a geo-tag earlier.” I furrowed my brow. “But a few days ago, you said you turned off that option on her posts and you were planting dummy codes so it looked like we were in LA.” My volume increased with each word.
“It wasn’t Pasco’s fault,” Lang said quietly. He gave me a sharp look, reminding me he had Pasco’s back as much as he had mine.
“Sorry Pasco,” I said. “I’m just confused.”
“Last night, Cara posted a teaser about her art project coming to socials on the 26th,” Pasco said. “Cool project, by the way,” he told her. “Anyway, my program worked its magic and faked her location. But then the post went viral.”
“Mypost went viral?” Cara asked. “My following is barely big enough to monetize it.”
“It’s exploding now,” Pasco said. “But that wouldn’t have mattered, either, except apparently there’s a town full of excited people who tagged your post to tell the world they were there with you yesterday while you worked.”
“Shit,” I said slowly. “And they were traceable, so someone put the puzzle pieces together and led the snipers to right tous.” I rubbed Cara’s back. “I’m sorry I put you in danger. You know it’s the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
“Can I talk to you?” Cara asked. “Privately.”
I glanced at Pasco and Lang, who both moved away from us and closer to the rest of the team.
“Okay, we’re alone, Care. What is it?”
“I can’t do this.”
“What, the plane ride?” I didn’t know what I could do to fix that for her, but at least I could try to understand what was upsetting her.
“I don’t mean the plane.”
My heart sank. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“It was my fault.”
